The existing government distribution and pricing policies of food commodities in Egypt seem to be a major factor for increasing food consumption. The partial price policy of subsidizing some major food commodities while keeping close substitutes and complementary food prices to be determined through market's supply and demand forces seem to create unfavorable utilization pattern for these commodities. The artificially created unbala¬nced relative prices for the subsidized food commodities seems to lead for using these commodities in unintended uses. Using low priced wheat, flours, and bread for poultry and livestock feeding as substitute or complement for high priced feed is an example. Also, waste in human consumption of these low priced commodities could be observed. Actually, this creates unnece¬ssary burden on government budget, and investment allocation.
The present study intends to examine, quantify, and assess the utilization pattern of major subsidized food commodities in urban and rural areas. The utilization pattern of wheat, flours, balady bread, French (fino) bread, rice, beans, and sugar are examined. A survey is conducted to cover 210 faro lies in urban and rural areas. The sample includes 80 families in rural area (from Hifna village, Sharkia Governorate), 50 fami¬lies in urban Zagazig City, and 80 families in Cairo ( Saieda Zenab District). Relevant statistical tests are carried out to test for differences in uses between urban and rural areas, and between high and low income groups within each region. T-tests are carried out and reported.
The study concluded that on the average about 7.2% of the utilized quantities are used for poultry and livestock feeding or wasted. The portions utilized for this use reached 5.3%, 6.1%, and 3.2% for flours, balady bread, and fino bread, respectively. For rice this percentage reached about 7.2%, and for beans over 25%. Also, the annual per capita human consumption of balady bread reached about 960 loafs in urban and rural areas, respectively. About 61% of the rural families included in the survey seem to purchase balady bread from the market. This seems to be a new trend resulting from the existing government pricing and distribution policies. Only 31% of the rural families seem to use fino bread.
The statistical analysis concluded that there are stat-istical significant differences between urban and rural utilization pattern for these commodities at 0.05 level of significance. Also, there are statistically significant differences in the utilization pattern for each income group between urban and rural areas. However, there seems to be statistically insignificant differences between the utilization pattern for high and low income groups within each area.